Hearing set on motions to dismiss in Catahoula Parish kidnap case

ALEXANDRIA – A federal judge in Louisiana has scheduled a hearing Feb. 19 on motions to dismiss the indictment against a man who was declared dead in Mississippi 1994, but surfaced in 2010 as a suspect in the deaths of his Las Vegas girlfriend and her daughter.

Thomas Steven Sanders is facing the death penalty on each of two counts in the kidnapping death of 12-year-old Lexis Roberts, whose body was found in October 2010 in Catahoula Parish. Her mother’s body was found later in Arizona.

Sanders is charged in the child’s death in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.

Sanders’ lawyer has said in court filings that her client is charged with two counts that could lead to the death penalty, but both counts arise from the same circumstances.

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